Trial focuses on chaos of special needs classes

Day two of former special education teacher Patrick McCarthy's trial on charges of battery and unlawful restraint of three autistic students included testimony about how chaotic a special needs classroom can be.

Carol Greco and Habib Behrouzi, teacher's aides who worked with McCarthy last year at Robert Frost Junior High School in Schaumburg and School District 54 occupational therapist Amanda Null described a classroom of students severely impacted by autism (most of them nonverbal or with limited ability). They testified that students sometimes behaved aggressively, kicking each other and head-butted staff members. Some injured themselves, one tipped over desks, another ran around the classroom.

Any stimulus might trigger what defense attorney Thomas Breen called "a meltdown" which McCarthy and his aids de-escalated by various means including physical restraint (using methods sanctioned by Crisis Prevention Institute which trains teachers and aids in safe, nonviolent ways of managing disruptive behavior), having the student spend time in a quiet room or having the student engage in physical exercise among others.

However, those strategies do not include using a jump rope to tie a student to chair or making a student jump on a trampoline while wearing a weighted vest, which prosecutor Cathy Nauheimer accused McCarthy of doing.

In statements that initially seemed damning, Behrouzi said that the 32-year-old McCarthy seemed on edge and impatient as the 2007-2008 school year began. He testified that McCarthy made one student jump on a trampoline for 40 minutes wearing a weighted vest four or five times between late August and late September, 2007. He also testified that McCarthy once dealt with a student who had been running around the classroom by tying him to a chair with a jump rope. The student squirmed free in about a minute Behrouzi said.

In his cross-examination, Breen asked Behrouzi about a student who frequently leaned on the back two legs of his chair.

"If left to his own devices, he'd tip back," said Breen. "He could crack his skull."

Behrouzi testified that when the student did this, McCarthy would come up behind him and push the front legs down to the floor to prevent the chair from tipping backward. On one occasion, McCarthy pushed the chair which slid across the room colliding with a cabinet and causing the boy to hit his forehead, said Behrouzi.

"It could have been an accident," said Behrouzi. "I don't think he intentionally did that to hurt (the student)."

Testimony continues at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Rolling Meadows courtroom 110.